AI for Datong: A Normative Framework for Sustainable AI
Abstract: In an early article, I proposed datong, a normative ideal in Confucianism akin to the common good, offers an alternative way to formulate AI for Social Good’s agendas; and, I called this approach AI for Datong (Wong 2021). More specifically, I argued that the idea of datong requires AI-based projects, if they are to contribute to the social good, to be (i) public-centered that they ought to be motivated and justified by the good of the general public but not the interests of specific groups of individuals, (ii) care-centric that they are based on altruistic care for all but not aim for any personal advantages, and finally (iii) transformative that they should not merely attempt to prevent, mitigate, or resolve problems adversely affecting human beings and the environment but more fundamentally transform the individuals and social conditions such that the problems do not arise. The approach of AI for Datong, I contend, can also contribute to the discussion of sustainable AI (van Wynsberghe 2021). In addition to the (i) public-centeredness, (ii) care-centricity, and (iii) transformativeness, the idea of datong also accounts for—or, indeed, transcends—temporality and intergenerality. Together, they provide an account of our moral obligations to sustainability in design, development, and deployment of AI. In this paper, I first review the normative challenges related to sustainable AI, highlighting in particular the questions about moral obligations arise from the temporal and intergenerational gap in design, development, and deployment of AI (see, e.g., Halsband 2022; Robbins & Wynsberghe 2022). Next, I rehearse my approach of AI for datong and then make explicit its temporal and intergenerational dimension. Finally, I elaborated on how the approach of AI for Datong, with its temporal and intergenerational dimension, offers a unique perspective to answer the normative challenges related to sustainable AI.
Author bio: Pak-Hang Wong is a philosopher and ethicist of technology working in the industry, where he explores and addresses the social, ethical, and political aspects of AI, data, and other emerging digital technologies. Wong received his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Twente in 2012 and then held academic positions in Hamburg, Oxford, and Hong Kong prior to his current position in the industry. Most recently, he co-edited with Tom Wang Harmonious Technology: A Confucian Ethics of Technology, where they provide an alternative, non-Western approach to the ethics of technology.
Recorded Presentation | 28 April 2023
#Sustainability #Values #SouthKorea
